HyperPen 6000U

March 29, 2004

HyperPen 6000U (Aiptek, $39.99) is an electronic drawing tablet (graphics tablet) and cordless pen used in much the same way you’d use a mouse for controlling your computer but is especially fun and useful for--you guessed it--drawing.

The HyperPen 6000U tablet has a 4.5 x 6 inch drawing surface on which you "draw" with the pen. Other sizes are available: an 8 x 6 inch for $109.99 and a 12 x 9 inch for $149.99. The on-screen cursor follows the cordless pen’s position on the tablet to a resolution of 3048 lpi (lines per inch), up to a 0.3 inch height above the tablet, and a touch pressure gradient of 512 points (more about that later). Pressing the point of the cordless pen downward is equivalent to a single left mouse button click. A two-position rocker switch on the barrel of the pen serves as both the right mouse button click and as a double left mouse button click. Since holding the wireless pen is similar to holding a writing pen or pencil, the wireless pen and tablet is more comfortable for many than using a conventional mouse.

Cursor action can be set in one of two modes: relative or absolute. In the absolute mode, the position of the cordless pen on the tablet is reflected precisely by the cursor’s position on screen. If you place the pen in the middle of the tablet, the cursor jumps to the middle of the screen; placing the pen in the upper left part of the tablet jumps the cursor to the upper left part of the screen, and so on. In this mode it’s easy to accurately trace a drawing placed on the tablet, since the pen’s position and the on-screen cursor position match one-to-one. In the relative mode the relation of the pen position to the cursor position is more like the usual mouse action where you can pick up the mouse to change the mouse’s position on your desk without moving the cursor on-screen.

The tablet connects to the USB port of your computer,

is thin and light and can easily sit in your lap for truly comfortable computing. Along the upper margin of the tablet’s writing area are 12 flat touch buttons representing the computer’s keyboard function keys F1 through F12. Included with the tablet is a wireless mouse that can operate atop the tablet, similar to a desk mouse. You can use this mouse if you get tired of the pen. Installation, however, does not affect your previous mouse--it will still work too.

A set of fun and useful software is included with the tablet. On the fun side, Art Dabbler provides a set of drawing tools and options that can bring out the artist in anyone. For freehand drawing, you get all kinds of cool tools: Pen, Paintbrush, Chalk, Marker, Spray Can, Ink, Paint Bucket and, of course, an Eraser--all available in different thicknesses and with various options. Here’s where the pressure gradient feature of the wireless pen comes to play. The firmer you push down on the pen, the thicker the drawn line becomes, allowing great flexibility in your drawings, and for text, a calligraphic effect.

The tools are used in conjunction with paper textures, so the drawing goes on as if on a textured or patterned paper. For example, drawing on a canvas texture produces an effect as though painting on a canvas. Dozens of textures are available to suit any whim. Colors are selected from color palettes or from a color wheel, and gradient fill colors are available as well. A stencil feature permits you to limit your coloring or effect to a masked area, and dozens of stencils are provided--from simple symbols such as hearts or arrows to animal outlines and more. A tracing paper overlay option lets you apply drawings, stencils or other effects to align with underlying drawings, photos and the like. Many other effects are available, such as distortion, blur or fade. For even more fun, you can create flip book animations and save these as printed flip books or an .avi movie. Several useful tutorials help get you started using the features of Art Dabbler.

Also included with HyperPen 6000U is Office Ink. Using this program you can add freehand notes, diagrams, symbols and the like that appear on top of a Microsoft Word document--without disturbing the underlying document. You can draw on top of other desktop layouts as well and save or e-mail the drawings. This option is ideal for editing documents when several people are involved, and these freehand notes and the like are a snap to use with the graphics tablet and wireless pen.

Other programs included with the graphics tablet are Ulead Photo Express, a photo editor with easy-to-use features especially suited for the novice digital photographer, making using the graphics pad and pen for photo editing a breeze; Cadix Signature, which creates a password system for access to your computer and data files using your signature as a password; Free Notes, which allows you to keep sticky-type notes on your computer, and Microsoft NetMeeting.

The HyperPen 6000U graphics tablet also works with a variety of other programs, such as photo editing, page layout, word processors, presentation programs and others.

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